‘I wanted to be wrong’
Ainsworth Morris
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Lyew-Ayee Jr advocates personal responsibility after high road death toll
A month before the close of the old year, Dr. Parris Lyew-Ayee Jr, vice-president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), predicted that there would be at least 473 road fatalities for 2022.
Other specialists in Jamaica were predicting a death toll hovering around 467, which would be less than 2021’s fatality count of 487, based on the new trend, but Lyew-Ayee insisted otherwise.
As at December 31, his prediction was exceeded by the preliminary count of 16, a figure which should climb if people injured in crashes during last year succumb to their injuries in 2023.
“I feel sick. It’s one of the worst parts of my job. I wanted to be wrong – badly, badly to be wrong,” Lyew-Ayee told?The Gleaner, noting that he looked at the statistics in a forward manner rather than making year-on-year comparisons.
“We need to graduate our way of thinking. Based on what I was seeing and the fact that December was in front of us, you’re really telling me that we’re going to get 467? There’s no way! Don’t tell me that you’re comparing to the same period. It means nothing. The reality is the numbers will still go higher,” he said.
Lyew-Ayee said he wanted persons to hear the number being predicted and decide to be extra careful and more responsible on the roadways to prove him wrong, but the opposite happened.
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“The reason I said what I said was to try to save the people who were not yet dead, who are now dead!” he told?The Gleaner.
“Every day I get the report, I said, ‘Please be wrong! Please be wrong!’, and you look at it and you see [the number going up],” said the researcher, who has been passionate about saving persons from road fatalities.
Lyew-Ayee believes the resolutions to reduce road crashes lay mainly in the hands of drivers and not the Government, who are responsible for the structure of roads.?
“There are things the police can do, but there are things that are not up to the police. There are things Government can do, but there are things that are not Government. The Government is not going to stop you from overtaking a line of traffic. That’s not the Government’s business. You have to just behave yourselves,” Lyew-Ayee said.?
“The police have SOEs and murders and they can’t be everywhere, so it is very complicated,” he said.